3rd Annual D3 Multisport Conference big success

3rd Annual D3 Multisport Conference big success

The third annual D3 conference got underway last week at the Training Peaks office in Lafayette, CO on January 8th & 9th. It was a great two days filled with time together as a coaching group. We were able to share ideas, problem solve on more ways to provide D3 coaching services, how to improve the coaching services we presently provide, and share our knowledge with each other to better coach YOU, our athletes. This much I am very confident in… this is one special group of coaches. We are a diverse group with what we are able to offer the triathlon and running community, as well as each other as coaches. Let me share with you some details of our days together.

Our first day started with Mike Ricci, our head coach, sharing information on the growth of D3 over the last year. He introduced our new coaches Mark “Dills” Dillard and Mat Steinmetz, the youngster of the coaching staff. Their background and experience in sport is impressive. I’d encourage you to take a minute and read their bios and welcome them to the D3 family. They can be contacted at Mat@d3multisport.com. and MarkDills@d3multisport.com. I do want to share a little additional info with you on Dills and Mat that you will not find in their bio’s or the D3 site… they are also in the process of looking at starting a band. We were graced with their singing of the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” during the ‘new coaches initiation.’ Let me tell you… this was something special to hear and see… hee-hee!

Speaking of seeing something good, coach AJ set up one of our speakers this year and secured a new sponsorship opportunity for all of us at D3. David Decker, of Skins presented on the performance equipment made by the Australian based company. This is very popular company in Australia which is now making itself a home in the States. Watch for an upcoming e-mail from AJ about product availability, discounts and how to order. In the meantime, if you would like additional information, check out the Skins website if you are interested in reading more about the compression based tights, tops, etc. New opportunities did not stop here though.

We were fortunate again to have Gear Fisher, Co-Founder and COO of Training Peaks, present to us over our two day meeting. Gear provided us with information on the great new things available for writing training plans, logging, comparing training from a year ago to the same time this year(all side by side on the same screen). Watch for updates from your coaches as we get these things updated and in use for all of you. This is very exciting stuff as it provides greater ease in writing training plans and a better ability to follow our progress through our training phases.

The learning did not stop there. Next came time at Functional Fitness with Danny Suter. This is a fitness center in Boulder which offers 24 hour access for trainers and their athletes. Check out their website for more details on this terrific center. Here we discussed the different phases of weight training, proper warm-up, progressing through phases, and how to be creative with the strength part of our training. Have you ever thought of using dumbbells and gliding pads to do push-ups? Trust me, a good fun challenge, that mixes things up and is a different look at how you can do push ups. Funny enough, this is where some of the teasing amongst the group would come from later.

Curt, not wanting to let Dills and Mat get picked on too much about their singing, made the mistake of commenting on his quads hurting from our weight training session with Danny. It did not take any of us long to offer Curt ‘cheese with his whine’ during our closing minutes of our conference wrap up. From here it was off to dinner in downtown Boulder with more teasing, laughs and wishing we had a couple more days to share new ideas, plan upcoming D3 camps, and more.

I will leave you all with much of what I said to start. This is a terrific group of coaches who are highly motivated, love to coach, care about the people they coach, and definitely represent the 3 “D’s” of D3 Multisport in their coaching. Desire, Determination, and Discipline not only in their life as an triathlete, but in the way they coach. Not only did we come away with new information to continue to grow and improve in our coaching services, but ideas in providing new opportunities that will help us achieve our triathlon goals. Stay tuned for some of those new ideas in upcoming newsletters and e-mails.

We wish you all the best for a great 2009 with family, friends and having your best season ever!

D3 Multisport

desire, determination, discipline

Our coaching philosophy is to help you get the most out of your available training time. We don’t believe in junk mileage or useless workouts. We combine the most current research and triathlon training techniques with proven race strategies to help our athletes reach their goals.